Requiem For a Themed McDonald's
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- Опубліковано 22 кві 2021
- Today on Quinton Reviews, we take a little detour into the world of themed, nonstandard McDonald's. Why did these come into being? what has happened to so many of them? Today, we find out!
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Sweet
Hope you get more care packages from corporations.
Hey does anyone know if there is any news on the Animporhs video?? Really looking forward to it!
Shoutout for the soyboys shirt
Quinton, could you please do discontinue fast food items...I swear up and down to friends McDonald's had soup in the early 90s no one believes me!
I went to the dinosaur McDonald's in Benson, AZ a few years ago with my family. They had a guy in a Ronald McDonald costume playing pop songs on a ukulele inside. He finished his song and, since we were the only family in the restaurant, he asked me "What would you like me to play, young man?" I asked him if he knew any Metallica and this fucking legend played Ride the Lightening in the middle of the goddamn dinosaur McDonald's. This is my most treasured memory.
“A Ronald McDonald who plays a ukulele cover of Metallica songs inside a dinosaur-themed restourant?
*Shhh!*
*He is legend...*”
Tucson has a Dinosaur mcdonald's too, I've been there alot, I think it was the first mcdonald's here to install a kiosk system
I remember a dinosaur themed one and a 50s diner with a jukebox somewhere around in pheonix from my childhood. I feel like there was a weekly bounce at another?
That is the inexorably based.
I used to live in Paradise Valley in Phoenix, Arizona and that dinosaur McDonalds was basically my childhood McDonalds
"I was not sponsored by McDonald's, I was bribed by McDonald's"
That's the kinda clarity I want in my content
Now all I need to figure out how it can happen to me.
*psst* Disney, I am for sale.
I'm not really a fan of evil multinational corporations, but I have to say I am genuinely impressed by the handwritten note.
I agree. I came to the comments to say this. I feel slightly conflicted lmao.
The 4b from McDonald's is the only reason why I go sometimes, everything else sucks besides the nugs
@@BusterNut McNuggets are pretty dope.
Same lol. I don't support it but I do admire it I guess haha
@@BusterNut dude. I loved McDonald's chincken nuggets. Ate them at least once a week.
I have not eaten them for a year. Last few times I tried them I hated them. They changed them. They're thinner and the breading is weird. Really disappointing.
We had a motorcycle McDonalds, I took my GF to eat there and I told her "wait until you see the inside of this McDonalds" we entered and the motorcycle inside was gone along with all the decorations. This video explains it all.
Ouch, that must have been sad ;^;
@@graysonrogers-barnes6302 yeah it was
Let's start a campaign to find & send that last Elvisaurus Rex to Quinton.
He deserves it. It deserves him.
NO IT'S MINE. I DESERVE IT, NOT HIM
We should also give him Wado; he needs Wado.
@@angusmcnay5449 Theoretically 2 of them may be in existence since 2 of them were made
I found a petition to save the Sacramento statue and it sadly only had 32 signatures. I wonder what happened to it
audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/elvisaurus-statue-2-500-waterford-mi.933852/ It's 2,500 and I think it's still for sale?
"I'm not sponsored by Mcdonalds, I was BRIBED by Mcdonalds" gave me a hearty bellylaugh.
I knew this video was too uncharacteristic of Quinton
i needed those mcnuggets.
Looks like his life’s sponsored by McDonald’s
Sad to say that the happy meals mcdonalds in Dallas was torn down and made into a more "modern" basic mcdonalds not too long ago :/ We live in a cruel and unfair world
At first I rolled my eyes at his disclaimer about the coolest McDonald's being closed down, then Elvisourous Rex popped up on screen and I broke down in sorrow. How dare they kill such a legend!
He's out there, somewhere. Elvisourus lives.
You said “prepare for heartbreak,” but I did not imagine such profound heartbreak about a restaurant could exist.
They killed MY BOI
@@Laurabeck329 🎶 It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday... 🎵
Coincidentally, "heartbreak" can be caused by eating too much McDonald's.
@@MrIrrationalSmith boooooo
@@MrIrrationalSmith 👏👏👏
"Capitalism breeds innovation"
> All McDonalds start to look the same
T.T
That's all part of the innovation- it matches the desires of the market. When theming sells, people find new ways to theme. Chances are innovations are still happening at McDonald's, but matching the desires and needs of the current market
the new mcdonald’s look sleek i guess, but i liked the previous look better, i am biased because they literally rebuilt an entire mcdonald’s which took like 2 months
@@inedanap6253 trust me they aren’t doing any useful innovating at McDonald’s
@@NeedyBoBeedy I think it's probably good, motivated by greed and focus groups or not, that they are moving away from marketing towards children. Now it looks as soulless and corporate as it actually is. I'm addicted to fast food by the way, and I love them being honest about our relationship.
I’m not sure why Quinton can’t "prove" the log cabin McDonald’s. It’s in Asheville, NC. The whole city is very intertwined with the Biltmore Estate, and that McDonald’s is part of it. I’m so confused why he couldn’t find it. His family probably can’t remember it because they just lumped it in as a smaller part of a larger trip to Biltmore.
I have a very distinct memory of a restaurant and the road in front of it from when we had to go to Louisiana because of my idiot father and his stupid lawsuit for his stupid business with a stupid woman who didn’t want to pay him. I haven’t talked to my father in years, but my mom barely remembers, if at all, the restaurant, and tree lined road in front of it, I remember so super clearly, even though I was _extremely_ young. I also have very specific memories about our attempts to get back home to North Carolina via railroads that my mom just lumps in with the, legitimately, three different land methods we had to take to get home. I fell in love with traveling via rail and I have a wish stemming from that time to travel the country by rail. (Unfortunately poverty, disability, and the US having a horrible railroad system means it’ll likely never happen, especially since I’m already 30.) Kids will kinda just grip onto things that the adults think are barely worth remembering.
Anyway, point of the comment is that the McDonald’s definitely does exist.
I know there was a similar one in Wisconsin Dells as wel
Ive been there actually
I hope Quinton reads this comment, you might change his life.
I realize this reply is 3 months old, but thank you. I live in Asheville, and as soon as he said "log cabin McDonald's" I was like, 'oh yeah, it's right down the road.' I immediately came to the comments to make sure someone had pointed it out. I will say, though, it's more well known for the grand piano inside than the log cabin aspect. I'm pretty sure they've even done specials about it on the food network in the past. Weird that he wasn't able to find any info about it.
@@katyb4527 yeah, it only took me a very quick Google search
The part about themed McDonalds having worse health code violations actually makes sense! In my hometown we had our own "Rockin'" McDonalds with memorabilia, but it was shut down around 2010- I vividly remember that it was because an elementary classmate of mine's brother found a worm in his sweet tea. It's since changed owners and been completely rebuilt.
quinton: prepare to be disappointed about this restaurant that no longer exists
me: i probably wont care that much
quinton: it was dinosaur-themed
me: OH FUCK
I love that this video is visually framed as a two-man show between Quinton and Garfield
One of these days Garfield is going to say something profound in a vid
@@lukeschock9338 "the hatred in your heart warms you now, but it will eventually leave you cold in your grave."
-Hugeass Garfield Plush
Entergagement McDonalds
good mythical morning
I grew up near a Rock and Roll McDonald's and one of the problems I always noticed with the themed McDonald's is they didn't always clean the stuff attached to the wall that often. It was not uncommon to go into that location and see dusty records.
So I kind of understand the sanitary issues.
It got renovated a couple years ago.
Throughout the entire video, I had in the back of my mind "yeah its pretty but God Mcdonalds in my head is just disgusting" and then you finally got to the health code violations and yeah.
I almost feel bad for associating Mcdonalds with "disgusting environment", honestly I'm sure nowadays they're a lot more clean, but when I was a kid, I just recall every single one being completely dirty so the association stuck and it's honestly the biggest thing I think about when I hear about any Mcdonalds.
Kids are gross, you create a giant jungle gym themed place for kids to crawl around in all these nooks and crannys that's so large it would take forever to clean it + nasty, greasy food supposedly being the main point of the entire place, you're gonna have a bad time.
Sticky
Seeing all those bright and colorful McDonalds transform into the simple brown cubes we know now made me feel unreasonably sad.
Your naive childhood optimism is now replaced by the cold industrialized Corporation™
@@collinmclaren6608 But the corporation was in here *taps your feeble mind* all along
@@collinmclaren6608 It was always cold industrialized corporation though! It just had a ball pit before.
I feel the same way about social media. Myspace and old UA-cam and, heck, Neopets had so many customization options for your pages that have been stripped away by the 2010s Facebook style of social media. I keep hoping for a pendulum swing back into personalization, but seeing how many themed McDonalds have been removed in the last 3 years doesn't give me hope for things like this.
@@RagmaticalRachel true but they also cared about giving you something more. Now they just hook you up to a hamster water dripped, no wheel or anything
The emotional whiplash of imagining Quinton going and seeing Elvisaurus on this fever dream trip across the country only to within seconds saying the dream is dead took part of my soul.
Hearing about Elvissaurus Rex being gone was a deep cut in my soul. Hearing that it was in Sacramento (only an hour away) was heartbreaking. Hearing that it closed in 2017 (when I was old enough to drive there myself) has left me a shell of a broken man.
As someone who grew up in Florida during the themed McDonald’s boom, I can confirm that it was a WILD time.
born too late to explore the world
born too early to explore the universe
born just in time to have gone to themed McDonald's
If Quinton put this on a mug I would buy it.
@@spacecat7864 samee
"A plane was placed on top of the restaurant... this opened around 1997 and became suddenly unpopular a few year later" Oof
literally took a reread to understand what he meant
I'm really disappointed I live close enough that I could have visited it.
I'm Australian and have NEVER heard of themed McDonalds... this was such a wild ride
I desperately remember a two story cabin type McDonald's somewhere near Bishop, California. It had a fireplace and all, but I can find zero proof it ever actually existed so I feel the pain for the North Carolina one.
The NC one is in ashville and can be looked up pretty easy, idk how he couldn't find it
Interesting, I didn’t realize “Rock and Roll McDonalds” by the late Wesley Willis was about a specific McDonalds location.
Same here - my mind is absolutely blown lmao
rock over london
RIP to the legend
@@Akirakirakirakiraa rock on, Chicago
Same
pouring one out for all adults who appreciate a "childlike" theme, hope they come back
I don't even understand. There are so many boring adult places in the world, McDonald's shouldn't be one of them.I don't go to McDonald's to feel like an adult. I go to McDonald's to stuff 20 chicken nuggets down my maw while I feel nostalgic about a time when going to McDonald's was exciting. When McDonald's was synonymous with "fun".
I have a feeling that in a decade or two at most, we are gonna be seeing a _lot_ of "nostalgic" McDonald's locations with the "old" (90s/00s) look. They haven't been gone long enough for it to work yet, but once millennials like me are all in their late 30s and 40s, and have like 10 year old kids, we are bound to be suckers for that kind of move.
Personally i just really prefer some color and visual interest in my surroundings. Im sick of this "modern = boring"
Edit: oh my god sorry this comment is a year old
The most heartbreaking part of the video is towards the end when Quinton hopefully speaks about how the pandemic will be over soon. Watching this nearly two years later and still being stuck at home is so disappointing.
@ellie Unfortunately many people who are chronically ill, disabled, or otherwise immunocompromised. Due to one or a combination of those factors a lot of us are still pretty stuck at the moment. Hopefully things will clear up even more soon though! 💚
quinton's room is slowly becoming filled with more and more treasures
this awoken the memory of me crying in the bathroom of a jungle mcdonald’s and my mom telling me the lions singing in the walls won’t eat me
I’m so sorry u had to relive that trauma
Corporate: "We're going to have to stop using Ronald McDonald as our mascot"
Everybody: why?
Corporate: "We're making him look bad"
No, more like “he looks like a stooge meant to just make us look better”. Way to listen & comprehend.
I really do hope this project contributes to our ability to hold onto non standard McDonald's franchises.
I'm not a die hard for the food or the company, but I do appreciate there being policies that allow franchise owners to decorate their restaurants and showcase their collectors items/memorabilia. It gives people an air for freedom and creativity :)
There used to be a sci fi "galactic" mcdonalds in west bend wisconsin. Easily one of the coolest things in my childhood and a regular visit even though i lived like an hour and a half away. The whole thing was custom. Even the tables were built to entertain, they had lights you could interact with that would make noise. the play area was insanely massive, with references to star trek, star wars, and iirc, the alien series. they also had video games. now it's the same sterile, bland, hollow, expressionless husk that we see all over the planet. i miss the 90s and early 2000s.
Place straight up sounds like Pizza Planet irl, that would've been awesome.
I love how Quinton has just embraced having the giant Garfield as his co-host.
we need a collab with jenny nicholson's Spider
@@Raph584 yess
@@Raph584 - and the giant porg!
The Defunctland channel might be able to help you out, this project seems right up his alley
Definitely
the crossover special we need
Love that channel
You are so right, seconding this
Good idea!
I feel like the modernisation and "adultisation" of MacDonald's leaves a gap in the market for a restaurant with a "high class restaurant" theme, with tablecloths, fancy silverware, waiters, candelabras, and a wine list.
I just discovered your channel a few days ago, Quinton, and I love your content. I love these in-depth dives into things that I've never really thought about or considered before. It's honestly fascinating. I just finished your Victorious video (had to split it up into multiple viewing sessions, haha) and I thought it was great! Keep up the good work, and I hope that you're able to do your themed McDonald's roadtrip some day :)
Near the Scottish border, there's a Mcdonald's in a service station that looks like a Church. It's tradition for us to visit this specific Mcdonald's when we visit family there. Very strange feeling being in a car for several hours going all the way from Wales to wind up in the McChapel.
Goin' to mcChapel and we're gonna get nuggets, baby
Praise be to Mickey D
Ronald died for our sins
There’s one in Vancouver Canada too. Live there currently but haven’t had the chance to go in yet. Gonna need to get on it
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your fries
"going to the CIA themed McDonalds and hading out leaflets of the communist manifesto while eating" challenge.
I think that gets you a free trip to the guantanamo themed McDonald's.
I have been to that dinosaur McDonald's in Michigan a few times as a kid! I've even got to eat next to that statue (and touch it) too! It has to be the coolest thing that I've ever seen at a McDonald's before, including the animatronic Ronald McDonald that used to be at my local McDonald's before it was removed due to it scaring too many of the regular juvenile patrons. I really wanna go see Elvisaurus again . . . Hopefully soon!
Edit: Crap I should've watched a bit more of the video before posting this. My heart and soul are now crushed . . .
Omg I wanna see a video of that animatronic Ronald McDonald that sounds crazy
So this is where all those liminal space / weirdcore images came from
The death of Elvisaurus cannot be understated in a discourse on the death of the nation itself. With this beloved icon's demise came the destruction itself of American ideals: fast food, rock 'n' roll, and dinosaurs. Godspeed, my sweet reptilian friend. Godspeed as you travel to that glorious, unattainable McDonald's in the skies.
am i the only one who read this in a german accent for some reason
@@ByzantineDarkwraith I was thinking more of a Captain Picard vibe.
😭🙏
It seems really weird that McDonald's is trying to bribe you into going to a bunch of places that they clearly don't like or want to support. It makes me wonder if someone at the company hates the new move and wants you to try and revive them.
Maybe they have lost track of the survivers of the purge. Quinton will serve McDonalds by giving them a comprehensive list of locations doomed to be renovated
@@alexanderdzudzek OH SHIT ITS A TRAP DONT DO IT QUINTON
MCDONALDS are mostly all franchised owned by individual companies, most of them arenot really the corporate MCDs so chances are that every themed restaurant was just privately owned and thus when they went under there gone.
Lol. I’m
hopefully because i personally would love for them all to be revived
I grew up near Dallas and I remember the joy of going to the happy meal box store and the devastation of it being torn down.
I now have the joy of living in tucson and I’m proud to convey that the dinosaur wore a mask for a significant potion of 2020.
The whole time I was hoping you'd mention the Walled Lake location and that ending broke my fking heart, dam you mcdonalds. It was also that one McDonald's where every surface was always sticky
The minute you said "Florida" I knew there was going to be an alligator McDonald's
i'm surprised there wasn't a mcalligator sandwich.
Theres a big ass mcdonalds at Orlando. It has t two floors and they sell shit like pasta and fucking cake. Also has an arcade and has a Moon man with his piano statue
That a 50s theme was one of the most common ones for McDonalds (along with Hungry Jacks, basically an Australian Burger King) feels a bit like rubbing it in, given that most of the diners and malt shops from the actual 50s were all put out of business by chains like McDonalds
My local McDonald's was one too, opened in 1988
It was cool until they remodeled it into the bland boring modernistic box that so many have been turned into
I rarely go to that one these days anyways because they charge like twice the price on everything compared to every other McDonald's in the area
Yesss, I'm pretty sure there's still a few 50s themed Hungry Jack's in Logan
I've been to the one in Roswell, New Mexico. Honestly, that whole city's like an amusement part. Just no rides. There's a ton themed shops.
If you ever do this, you need to spend a day in that town. There's SO much fun stuff to see and do.
the McDonald's in my hometown when I was a kid was fish themed (probably since it was the Great Lakes region). it had fake pikes and bass hanging from the ceiling, and the walls were painted like an underwater lake scene
Just wanna say that my wife literally screamed in joy when she came in our office and saw how huge your Garfield plush was.
My mother was also impressed but had a much less flattering reaction... Specifically she said: "he (Quinton) looks like that garfield besides him"
@@LnnyOsoTo I wish I was as beautiful as Garfield
@@LnnyOsoTo Garfield has no flaws
Have you shown her the whole Garfield plushie saga?
@@LnnyOsoTo garfield has looks that compete with shrek and strength to compete against cuthulu
I always thought that McDonald's were just trying to pander to kids who grew up with old school style and now is a place for the soul destroyed to drink coffee and cry in modern minimalist interior design.
It grows up with it's customers
i remember watching and rewatching a, like, travel channel documentary about “The World’s Coolest McDonalds” in utter fascination as a kid.
I also went to the Safari themed McDonald’s in Orlando on a school trip and it absolutely blew our minds. I was also lucky enough to go to the Largest Playplace (back when it had the large fry facade) which intimidated me bc i was awkward and shy, and a Roman Ruins themed on in Rome! Also, the Biltmore McDonalds in Asheville with the giant grand piano.
also, i have a similar vivid childhood memory about a cool mcdonald’s, except it was an underground mcdonald’s in washington DC. definitely the coolest one i’ve been to. not necessarily themed, but it was still really cool to me as a little girl.
Underground?? That sounds awesome
The reaction to the second elvisaurus one shot me i am deceased
Good luck with your subscriber and patron goals this year! I’ve been subscribed for a while so I can’t do that again but i’ll happily make a patron pledge c:
god it's so weird that you're just like. a normal person who watches videos. what's up fellow normal human.
Legit I got so excited then so sad about that restuarant. It's like a ton of things I'm into in one place
Yeah I really hope he reaches it
Those hopes were dashed as quickly as they came into light.
#justiceforelivsaurus ua-cam.com/video/sEVTw66txkE/v-deo.html
"I know nothing about Homestuck"
Oh god he has no idea what he'd be getting into. That's uh that's uh quite the deep topic there.
I'm just waiting for when Quinton drops the Homestuck video and he inevitably gets harassed and/or threatened with a lawsuit by WhatPumpkin.
@@TwighlightLugia homestuck legal threats....... 2!
EDIT: just checked and he has 2k patrons... the trepidation is real
As a Homestuck, not reading Homestuck is self love. Genuinely hope he doesn't touch the epilogues or H^2 if he does do this.
@hatsune minecraft Fuck, you're right. I forgot that Homestuck ended at [S] Terezi: Remem8er. Real shame we never got to see the end of the story but I think Hussie was right to call it quits when they did.
@@loonloonlikemoonmoon1577 woah… what universe are you from i only remember [S] Cascade, really good flash i just wonder what happened after they passed the fourth wall
Your best video yet, I’m glad someone recognizes the weirdness and interesting history behind these buildings. It sucks that so many of them are gone :/
Rest in Peace Elvisaurus Rex
67 million BC - 2020 AD
An inspiration to all.
As much as I understand the desire for a company to distance itself from accusations of child manipulation, its sooo sad seeing the color of McDonald's LITERALLY vanish. Its like the Pixies from Fairly Oddparents ousted poor Ronald
Its a corporation my guy. Its not a mom and pop business that cares about you and your family. Everyone in these comments is fucking crazy.
@@line6peavey We know this, but where's your sense of fun, can we not enjoy things?
We don't think it cares for us, we just like the silly nature of themed restaurants.
@@line6peavey Thinking mom and pop business's care about you.
@@line6peavey let people enjoy things, they know it’s a load of corporate manipulation in the end, but that’s like getting mad at people for liking Mickey Mouse cartoons because Disney’s such a terrible company.
The bullshit critics needed to back off. So what if McDonald's successfully monopolizes the child demographic?
Modern McDonald's has this weirdly brutalist aesthetic to it.
I guess minimalism is the new brutalism.
@@jeremiahhockett1537 Yes. Sometimes it's nice but, so often, it's sad and ugly and it needs to GO.
Yeah, weird modernist style, almost would be cool if it just had more fun shapes and colors, but of course we can't have nice things
i didnt realize my town's old mcdonald's technically counted as a themed mcdonalds. our's was a tropical jungle themed that had a pretty waterfall in the dining area and lots of plants outside and surrounding the drive-thru. sadly it was torn down several years ago and now it's one of those standard gray fast food places and smaller. i miss the charm.
People were really mad when they tore down the Rock n Roll McDonalds in Chicago. It was there forever, and was a city landmark.
As a native Floridian that grew up visiting themed McDonalds (cause what else are ya gonna do), thank you for validating my childhood restaurant memories
i’m in Brevard County, where there’s a space themed McDonald’s in Titusville, right across the water from where the rockets launch - at least, i hope there still is
I remember a specific one with happy meal boxes being carried around the ceiling of the restaurant on a converter belt kinda thing and that’s the only thing I remember from that specific McDonald’s
Same, I live in Orlando so I've been to the old Entertainment McDonald's and the current version of it...tho they wouldn't let me play in the playplace it as an adult :(
I've known about the Wesley Willis song, "Rock and Roll McDonald's" for around 20 years and never knew it was about a themed location, always just pictured people going to a regular-ass McDonald's and dancing to the music played on the muzak machine
MCDONALDS WILL MAKE YOU FAT. THEY SERVE BIG MACS. THEY SERVE QUARTER POUNDERS. THEY WILL PUT POUNDS ON YOU.
Same
I like Rock and Roll McDonald's because Vinesauce Joel unironically enjoys it.
@@haris_robinson No shit, Sherlock
@@CRydon200 Those are lyrics from the Wesley Willis song, homie.
My tiny childhood hometown had a Texas themed McDonald’s- with giant oak wood Texas-shaped tables with log seats, big iron welded bison statues, and cowboy paintings and general western decorations. I came home from school one year and they had torn it down and replaced it with the modern design :( it broke my heart. This video got way too close to home.
27:00 This dude's expression kills me, he had no clue he was staring at a google employee forever to be immortalized on maps and subsequently in this video. God bless random Hollywood themed Mcdonald's customer, God bless.
When he said "they removed him during the pandemic" I shouted "NO!" so loud my roommate checked up on me to make sure I'm okay.
...I'm not.
Exactly exactly, I live around 2 hours from Walled Lake I was already planning a visit to him :'(
Correction: I live 37 minutes from there. Why is life so cruel that him and I never met?
Even if they don't wanna tailor to kids, you'd think they'd want to make people think "I wanna go there" when looking at the building instead of "wow, that looks so generic, I might fall asleep and crash my car into it just so it's less boring".
One non-standard McDonalds I love is the one in Sedona, AZ. And there's a good chance it's immune to the "modernization".
See, the Sedona city council is VERY particular with the aesthetics of their city. It's out by the Red Rocks, the rust-colored mountains in the AZ desert, and it's Sedona law that any commercial building that goes up in the city MUST adhere to strict appearance guidelines that reflect and compliment those mountains. Not only is the McDonalds built to look like a modern send up of an adobe building in rust colored and sandy tones, but the council was also opposed to the iconic golden arches as they figured they would clash with the Red Rocks. Meaning that it's the only McDonalds in the entire world (to my knowledge) with different colored arches. Instead, the arches at the Sedona McDonalds are turquoise. The Sedona city council literally bullied a multi-national corporation into changing their logo for a single location because they are just that uptight about their city's appearance. I find that to be wild. And it's because of that that I think it may stay that way. After all, a modern McDonalds would clash horrendously with the rest of the city and the mountains that surround it and we know by now the terrifying power the Sedona city council wields.
I go to college in Santa Barbara and they’re also very strict about image here, especially closer to the center of town-everything has to be Spanish style with the orange tile roofs and white, textured plastered walls, most of the buildings downtown also have Spanish tile on the walls. So all our fast food chains are in Spanish-style buildings and they don’t have that big logo on the top
I’ve also been to Leavenworth in Washington which is a Bavarian-style village. Essentially the entire town looks like a classic German Christmas village. The fast food buildings are all built in Alpine architecture with big pointed roofs and slanted wooden beams, and they all have to use the same font that’s used on every sign (including street sign) in the whole town. It’s genuinely so cute I suggest looking up pictures
It's not technically a themed McDonald's, but the one in Enterprise, Alabama has a statue they call the "McWeevil" standing in front of it. As the name suggests, it's a horrifying amalgamation of Ronald McDonald and a cotton boll weevil. The entire town has lots of other themed statues of weevils, and may be worth a look if you want to see a strange reference to some interesting history. I greatly enjoyed the video, and I was pleased to see that I had visited two of the locations you mentioned(St. Louis and the Oklahoma overpass).
There was a non themed McDonald's in Fairbanks Alaska where there was a house behind it that hated McDonald's and had a bunch of anti-mcdonalds propaganda all over their yard and house.
That is hilarious thank you for informing me
This is pure speculation but I don't think that was part of the theme, that might've been a real house that just really fcuking hated that restaurant. /s
@@LuckyHicks2 no that’s totally true LMAO he built a giant fence around his backyard and hung a ronald mcdonald from a tree in his backyard- fun to watch
"I think everyone who grew up in the Midwest knows the one McDonald's that you knew better than to go to."
The way I felt that.
Saaaame. It's been modernized, but knowing how many health code violations that place has still makes me shudder.
What's even better is when that's the only McDonald's within a reasonable distance.
Staten Island used to have one when I was a kid. The exterior looked like an average McDonald's but the interior was themed like a 1950s diner. It was renovated in 2019, but I had a lot of fond memories of it. I also went to a Nascar themed one in New Port Richey, Florida many times when I was a kid.
I've also been to one of the old school McDonald's locations in Bushnell, FL.
I'm happy to see someone else who loved Elvisaurus :) I actually grew up minutes away from the Walled Lake location, I went there all the time. When I was little I used to climb all over the poor dinosaur, so he was there for at least 20 years or so!
The entire location was especially neat. The neon lighting was present all throughout the building, and the walls were covered in (HORRIBLY faded) art, photos, and memorabilia from the 50s. They also had other older McDonalds things in general - the play place was outside and used to be the McDonaldLand pieces. Though the play structures were later updated, the seating and signage still stuck around, and they kept the Ronald McDonald statue! There was also a "celebrate your birthday here!" sign with all the McDonalds characters in the back corner of the restaurant that I would always look at.
It was very much a location that just... didn't get rid of anything. Which of course made it wonderful. Both my sister and I knew it was going to shut down with all the remodels that were happening, and we were hoping that maybe somehow the location would slip through the cracks and remain in all of its glory... but alas, the greatest McDonalds location and Elvisaurus are gone :(
Thank you again for recognizing the little location, I'm happy its existence brought you hope and joy for even a moment. It meant a lot to me too :)
YES that mcdonalds was my childhood. That play area that people loved talking about how disgusting it was too! I don't think I climbed all over the dino ever, I feel like that it something my mother or grandmother would yell at me to not do! Was there in the mid-late 90s from my earliest memories as a toddler
I'm proud to be a Wisconsin native simply because we have two log cabin McDonalds locations
Which tribe(s)?
@@allgodsnomasters2822 Not meaning to speak for Joel (or any pre-colonial peoples), but I'm an honorary member of the Opeimgonnaskootchrightbyya tribe.
You guys also have Red Letter Media!
There's a weird retro/Badger themed one in Middleton just west of Madison. Never have I felt proud of a city whilst eating two $1 cheeseburgers before.
I'm from Wisconsin as well! I remember there being a sold gold mcdonalds which was like 50s themed.
I didn't realize how much I did NOT need the phrase 'Ronald's Cave' in my life.
Ronalds dungeon
Ronald's Basement
ronald's ancestral home
Enter Ronald's hole.
Ronald's Tunnel of Love.
I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard (while simultaneously wanting to cry) as when you started playing Hurt and standing in a field after the last Elvisaurus was removed. Thank you for the incredible content!
there was a pennsylvania dutch mcdonalds in northern PA up until like 2019. it's a modern Mcdonalds now. they had faceless cloth dolls, amish art, and a functional stone fireplace
There’s what I’m pretty sure is... a church themed McDonald’s? Near where I live. I dunno, I haven’t gone in there yet but I gotta go before it closes. The outside looks like a church and they’ve got a fake stained glass McDonald’s logo
Is it the one around 14:00?
@@liamsgreatbitgaming 👈What he said.
@Jared Jams ironically it’s in Canada
my favourite thing about quinton is that he'll take a very niche topic that i had no idea would interest me and dig up the most fascinating, batshit stories about it
He is definitely something akin to a modern anthropologist
It's like last week tonight but not owned by ATT and more personal.
I’m coming back to this video two years after almost dying to covid. This channel helped me so much
I got really excited when the Solid Gold McDonald's was mentioned! I lived really close to it as a kid and went there frequently. I was so so sad when they converted it into a regular modern McDonalds
I work a few minutes away from the Big Mac Museum. I remember when it opened it was a big deal, everyone was really excited and it was super hyped up. And then almost immediately everyone stopped caring and it just became another McDonald’s to eat at.
I never realized it was a Big Mac Museum because any time you go through that section of road you are trying to get through there as quick as possible to avoid getting stuck in the traffic. I always knew it as "the Mcdonalds with the massive playroom" and still never went there even when i was a kid.
I'm pretty sure my family passes the Big Mac Museum on the way to our grandparents, but we've never been. I need to finally convince them to go next time before it's too late.
A Big mac museum...that sounds like the most American thing I ever heard xD
I've been to the rock n roll, underwater, dinosaur McDonalds a few times and I think I always convinced myself it was some weird recurring dream until it was mentioned in this video
lucky.
I've really started to miss "themed" places for some reason as I get older.
Also, what about a log cabin doesn't scream "adults"?
Going to the dinosaur McDonald's in Tucson growing up was always a treat, especially since we lived on the opposite side of town so we had to have a reason to go. I was sad when they renovated it, but glad they kept Rexy outside. I still get to drive by him every now and then.
I had no clue that our local “Monster Movie Mcdonald’s” was such a marvel. It was cool to me as a child, but because it was inside of a Wal-Mart I really didn’t consider it to be anything special. It’s a shame I didn’t appreciate it one last time before it got remodeled.
Normal people: thinks about going on vacation once quarantine is over.
Me: I want to safely get surgery so I can stop being anemic.
Quinton: McDonalds.
I hope your surgery happens soon and goes well.
@@deadphoenixrising You're very sweet, thank you. 💛
Imagine dying several hundreds of millions of years ago and some dudes just take your skeleton and slap it into a burger joint
This video unlocked hidden memories in my brain which is so so wild. Where I grew up in Massachusetts, there were two themed McDonalds a couple cities apart. In Fairhaven, there was a 50’s diner style one that had a huge poster of Betty Boop that I would stare at constantly, black and white floor tiles, and big pictures of old cars and drive ins and stuff on the walls. Then there was one I believe somewhere in Dartmouth or Fall River maybe, I would have to check with my mom or something to confirm because it’s been about fifteen years, that had old style train cars (?) and statues of the McDonald’s cast sitting inside as the play place area with murals on the wall that I don’t remember anymore. That second one I basically completely forgot about until I saw a couple of the pictures in this video. I’m gonna have to go through our old photo albums and see if we have pictures, but I’m at least glad to have somewhat remembered them! Fingers crossed they’re both still out there since I moved across country a decade ago and I have no way of knowing now. :( There’s no way I’m gonna go on Google maps and find a boring, corporate McDonald’s in their place and break my own heart.
Gee. What event could've possibly happened in a few years that an image of a plane seemingly crashing into a building made that particular McDonald's unpopular all of a sudden?
As a Canadian, I had no clue themed McDonalds even existed before this, much less that they were dying, so thank you for making me aware of this pressing issue.
As a Torontonian I did because there used to be one in the Toronto Zoo and my grandmother's apartment was a five minute walk from, of all things, a golf-themed McDonalds. I just had no idea it had ever been this extensive.
I should add that both of these were long before the late 90's-Early 2000's boom.
In Nova Scotia they had a Lighthouse McDonalds in Tanatallon, and a Movie Theatre one in Bayers Lake across from the actual movie theatre (an Empire Theatre become Cineplex that was also featured in one of the Trailer Park Boys first feature length films).
I knew about them from going on trips to Frankenmuth MI, a Bavarian-themed village which had a semi-themed McDonalds. The attached Play Place has a vaguely-Bavarian exterior and they called it a "Play Platz" (German for "Play Place")
@@Dymphnos3127 WHAT!? I have lived in Nova Scotia my whole 31 years and I had no idea we had any themed ones!
@@jonleibow3604 Not even correct German, it should be "Spiel Platz."
I remember going to a 50s diner style McDonald’s in SW Montana in summer of 2000. They had the menus glazed and embedded in the tables, with a see through sealant like 1” thick on top. Every table was a booth against a wall. On the wall, was a red one-line phone ☎️ that went straight to the kitchen and you ordered your food over that phone. A few minutes later, a staff person brought out your order on 60s style food trays. Does anyone here know of this place, or remember it?
I’m from New Hampshire and that talking moose head plagued my dreams for years. On time I went with my dad and it malfunctioned and kept repeating “nugget nugget nugget nugget” and it’s still burned into my memory banks. Thanks quinton!!
HA
I remember the one time me, my mom, my dad, my brother, and my cousin all went to sea world. But I don't actually remember what we did very well, but I do remember crawling around in McDonald's with the worlds largest play place afterwards. Isn't memory weird?
Devin
I remember seeing Chicken Run in a movie theater, but not the actual watching the movie part, just the part where we went to McDonald's after and they had Chicken Run happy meal toys
That's Probably for the best.
This vid is basically a sad reminder that mcdonald's isn't the place it used be due to the various changes made for it throughout years just so it can stay relevant in today's era .
Yeah like, I didn’t even realize Ronald McDonald stopped being the mascot. Over a decade of being gone and I’m only now realizing it.
Like all their stupid design choices that sucked out all the color and life in the store and make it look like another depressing office complex?
I was pretty sad when the local McDonalds near me (I've lived in the same neighborhood most of my life) no longer had hamburger seats and gamecube kiosks
@@Megan-sf5vf Wait...
Is McDonald's logo still red in America, or is it now green too like for us Europeans?
@@Megan-sf5vf yup
I remember when my local McDonald's had that old design with the fries on the roof and a playplace outside. Even though looking back, it was absolutely unsanitary, I still have memories from there. A shame though, that future kids won't be able to experience a McDonald's playplace.
We used to have a 50s rock and roll McDonald's. It had passed musicians on the ceiling (Elvis, Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, etc) and had jukeboxes and records on the wall. For the last 10+ years, it's been a "modern, tech friendly" soulless McDonald's, with plain walls and no defining features. That was a chunk of my childhood that died.
There's a Bavarian themed McDonalds in Leavenworth, Washington that I'm pretty sure isn't going away any time soon. The whole city of Leavenworth is a Bavarian themed tourist town and it requires it's businesses to comply to that aesthetic.
Dunno if the inside is themed at all though, but the outside is fun.
I've been there and it isn't. It's a nice McDonald's though and the whole town is lovely and has awesome food
The one in Sedona Arizona has the same thing but they require their business fit to a certain color scheme, so it has a green M and interior
Everytime the word "Rock and Roll McDonalds" was said, the voice of Wesley Willis comes into my head
me: enjoying the video
also me: IS THAT A KILLER BEAN PLUSH IN THE BACKGROUND??????